Description
Vinyl records London dig this New RSD Vinyl Records Double Vinyl by Flea. After a nearly fivedecade and counting career as one of his generations defining rock bassists, Fleareleases his first fulllength solo album,Honora, on Nonesuch Records. Time and space have finally allowed him to return to his first musical loves jazz and playing the trumpet. The album features the trackTraffic Lights, cowritten withThom YorkeandJosh Johnson, as well as the previously releasedA Plea. Flea and theHonoraband embark on an international tour, playing intimate venues in select cities, thisMay.ForHonora, which takes its name from a beloved family member, Flea composed and arranged the music, and also plays trumpet and bass throughout, joined by an elite crew of modern jazz visionaries album producer and saxophonist Josh Johnson, guitaristJeff Parker, bassistAnna Butterss, and drummerDeantoni Parks. The record features vocals from Flea, as well as friendsThom YorkeandNick Cave.Mauro RefoscoDavid Byrne, Atoms for Peace andNate WalcottBright Eyes, among others, also join the band. The album comprises six original songs including one cowritten by Flea, Johnson, and Yorke as well as interpretations of tunes by George Clinton and Eddie Hazel, Jimmy Webb, Frank Ocean and Shea Taylor, and Ann Ronell.Deantoni and I played what became Traffic Lights the first day, Flea explains. Something about it reminded me of Atoms for Peace, so I sent it to Thom. Just knowing him, I thought it would be a rhythm and a sensibility that he would relate to. And I was right, he did. With a gorgeous melody and the words, you know, about living in the upside down and how do you make sense of things when were getting all this fake shit and real shit Everyone has their ways of dealing with the world. But hes just the warmest, free flowing, jamming motherfcker.Best known as a founding member and bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea was first introduced to live jazz as a child, when family friends played the music together in his own living room. It was the greatest thing I ever saw, he recalls. The wildness, warmth and we of it. Straight Bebop. Boom. I knew there were higher things on this earth, way above the pettiness that had left me disheartened. The holy trifecta of my life, music, sports and nature was complete.Though he dreamed of being like his heroes Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and Clifford Brown, Fleas path went a different direction His close friend Hillel Slovak asked him to pick up the bass and join his rock band when he was sixteen, leading Flea into a decadeslong career with the hugely successful Chili Peppers.But late one night in 1991, in the midst of that bands ascent, Flea was acting in the nowclassic Gus Van Sant filmMy Own Private Idahowhen he shared with a friend, I want to make an instrumental record with deep hypnotic grooves, trippy melodies layered on top, meditations on a groove. The caveat was that he first needed to get his trumpetplaying together.As Flea neared his sixtieth birthday, he realized if he did not pick up the trumpet again, he probably never would. So he resolved to practice every day for two yearsin the midst of a stadium tour with Red Hot Chili Peppers, with a wife and newborn at home. At the end of those two years, he would make an album, regardless of where his knowledge or talents ended up.UntilHonora, Flea had never been scared of making music before. He worried that the allstar band he had assembled would think he was a nonplaying motherfcker, charlatan, rock poseur or fan. But, he says, It turns out they were all the most genuinely supportive people, moving me deeply and daily with their generous spirits Sitting in a room and playing the music with them made me feel like I was on drugs. I was buzzing, tripping and floating around the studio. I love them, they truly gave of themselves. I bow all the way down.
